Despite the forecast this game was played on a beautiful windless autumn day on a dry pitch. It had all the right ingredients for a cracking top of the league clash between two sides at the top or near the top of the division.
For 25 minutes that is what it proved to be. A powerful Ayr pack against a lively Hawks back division.
The early exchanges saw Hawks attacking in numbers but their inability to hold on to potential scoring passes, 4 at least, proved to be their downfall.
In the 10th minute George Horne kicked a long range penalty from an early scrum infringement. In the 14th minute Hawks were penalised for not rolling away from a tackle and Ross Curle levelled the scoring for the home side.
In the 25th minute the game effectively finished as a contest. Scrum Half, Grayson Hart, was yellow carded for apparently holding on in a tackle Three minutes later Ayr drove the shorthanded Hawks pack over the line with Blair McPherson getting the touchdown.
The Ayr pack was now rampant and in the 28th minute, after a series of scrum penalties for collapsing, they scored again through a pushover. No conversion this time but a handy 17-3 lead.
For the remainder of the half Hawks showed tremendous courage and no mean skill to hold Ayr at bay and with 2 minutes of the half remaining they contrived to score in the corner after a number of recycling phases Andy Kirkland squeezed over in the corner for an unconverted try.
Half time Ayr 17 Hawks 8
The first half had been reasonably contested but the Hawks handling errors when on attack and the yellow card had proved to be costly.
Restored to full strength Hawks started with a bang. Within 2 minutes of the restart a beautifully floated kick down the stand touchline by Grayson Hart was followed up by Junior Bulumakau and Ayr were forced to clear into touch on their 5 metre line. Hawks controlled the lineout and following a series of rucks Grant Stewart forced his way over for an unconverted try. Ayr 17 Hawks 13.
Now we had a game on our hands but not for long. In the 47th minute Brendan McGroarty made a hard but innocuous tackle, the type you see every pro game, and to the astonishment of all, including the Ayr support the referee red carded him. No more will be said about this incident here
Four minutes later the referee yellow carded Junior Balumakau for a high tackle called by the touch judge. Hawks were now down to 13 players. Ayr were now able to run at the depleted Hawks defence but chose not to preferring to hold the ball in the forwards and try to drive over the line. Another 4 tries were scored against the exhausted Hawks defence and Ayr ran out easy winners in the end.
The Ayr pack won the day, they are big, heavy, experienced and know how to play the referee, not that they were responsible for the red and two yellow cards.
Next week Hawks are at home to Currie kick 3-00 pm